July 15, 2007

sermon preparation


awards night, originally uploaded by AngloBaptist.

I am working through my little reflection for this morning. We're having a Taize-inspired service this morning. Lots of little choruses. Lots of silence. I'll offer up one very short reflection on the good samaritan. It may last three minutes. But the core of the reflection is this quotation from Brother Roger:

Every human being yearns to be loved as well as to love. It is not for nothing that the Gospel alerts us about not withdrawing in isolation.
The parable is essentially that kind of warning. In Luke, neighborliness is the backbone of love and righteousness. It is the backbone of self-sacrifice and gets us away from our individualism. Our individualism ends where need begins. For God so loved the world...

Posted by tripp at July 15, 2007 07:24 AM
Comments

...and I preached that love is the backbone of neighborliness...

I really appreciate taize. how did the service and little reflection work? did folks like it?

Posted by: mompriest at July 15, 2007 10:10 PM

MP,

I think it went well. Many people seem to appreciate the long silences. It's a busy world, and opportunities for stillness are rare. I do, however, issue a warning the week before. So many of our small children were missing. Perhaps that's a good thing. I don't know. What do you think?

Posted by: Tripp at July 16, 2007 06:32 AM

I've not done an entire Taize service with kids present. I have done portions of the service using Taize music...

But I offered a contemplative style service for our worship in Lent and used several Taize pieces throughout the otherwise normmal Episcopal liturgy. SO, we did this for five Sundays. At first the parents were anxious. But it worked ok. If the parents can stay relaxed and not worry too much about every little noise a kid makes then it works better. Most people are less "bothered" by the ordinary sounds of other people's children than the parents - who have a terrible need for the kids to be absolutely still. Anyway, some kids really like Taize because the words are simple and then can sing along easily. It's a fun way to teach kids about sung prayer.

I'd say be creative and play with it with adults and kids and see what happens.

Glad it went well yesterday.

Maybe the answer is to offer a form of Taize for the kids in another room while the adults have their more contemplative service. Assumiing you have a guitarist who is willing to hang out with the kids and teach the songs to them and how they are a form of prayer. That way the kids learn about sung prayer without the anxiety or concern of adults who want it to be a certain way. Then, maybe eventually the kids and adults can be togther?

Posted by: mompriest at July 16, 2007 04:43 PM